5 years and running

Five years ago, I wrote my first blog entry. In the beginning, I had a very rudimentary, static blog. Because it took so much time and effort to write and then integrate each post, I only posted on rare occasions. As you can see from the archives over on the right, I made only a few posts a month at best. I even had it hosted on my own Mac until SPU shut down hosting capabilities. Most of my earlier posts were personal in nature. A typical web dairy of an angstriddenteen. Was it really angst all that time? Maybe, maybe not.

On April 15, 2003 I installed b2, the predecessor of WordPress and posting became much more frequent. For better or for worse, my blog became more and more politically oriented. During high school, I wouldn’t say I had a stong political bent, though I wouldn’t say I was politically ignorant either. Along came college, and, like most college students, I entered into an informational black hole. Current events and politics took a back seat to playing video games and studying. I made my first overtly political post on September 18, 2001. Interestingly, I never wrote about the events of 9/11, which was one of the most formative events of my short life. I’ve meant to put down my recollections of that day for a while now, but I can never bring myself to do it. It’s still hard for me to even see pictures of it, let alone think about it. Now, I would consider myself pretty well-informed about politics. I take great interest in it, and my blog reflects it. Though if I had my druthers, I’d blog about politics a lot less. Everybody and his mom blogs about politics. I wish I had the opportunity to blog about something entirely different.

At any rate, I now have this blog that has become an integral part of my life. I’m not sure if that’s pathetic or if that’s a good thing. Originally my blog was just an outlet for me to write. I could vent, I could share, or I could whine. At the time I viewed my blog as a private journal, but for some reason I needed to know somebody might possibly read it. I’m sure some psychologist could come up with a pretty clever answer as to why I wanted people to read my ramblings. Now with over 50 hits a day with many from total strangers, my blog is hardly private, which puts some restrictions on what I feel comfortable writing. However, knowing that I have readers puts a whole new spin on the way I operate. It’s strange, possibly sad, that my brain has a filter that almost continually asks the question, “Is this bloggable?” Whether I’m driving down the road, sitting in a coffeeshop, watching a movie, reading a book, listening to music, or scanning the news, I think, “Can I blog about this? Is this worth sharing?” Fortunately, most of the time the answer is no.

I enjoy blogging. It forces me to write. It encourages me to stay informed. It allows me to interact with a lot of people. It helps me keep my thinking skills sharp. And it is a highly accessible diary of my life. I hope I can keep it up for another five years. I also hope I can keep my readers, who I appreciate very much, interested for another five years.